Today's Lesson: Why America can do no Wrong

See, when (crucial word, here) I'm a primary school teacher, I will teach Mathematics, English, Mandatory Foreign Language 1, the Sciences, and, God damn it, Philosophy. Also, no more of this "right/wrong" bullshit - the focus will be on good thinking, rather than on good memory.

I liked the image. It to me satirizes not just America, but the whole modern world:

We are good because we are liberal and bring empowerment to the individual: freedom, capitalism, social welfare, equality, multiculturalism, gender parity (no burqas), and so on.

Therefore, if you oppose us, you are Hitler-Stalin and need to be destroyed because you are immoral

We rule not by force, but by the consent of all educated, enlightened, upwardly-mobile people everywhere

Therefore, anyone who opposes us is an ignorant redneck who is afraid of the future

Our society is the future and the only alternative to an ignorant redneck past

This is where conservative and liberal break down: even our conservatives are arguing the above, which is essentially Hegelian Marxist-progressive doctrine.

Western "conservatism" has struck me for years as being exactly what Marxist academics like to call it: "neoliberalism." Center-Left and Center-Right political parties in the "developed world" disagree only at the margins, and really only about the degree to which to subsidize the ineffectual.

Its kinda bullshit to claim that terrorists kill innocents. These "innocents" are the ones who are propping up the economy and infrastructure; allowing their government to continue doing whatever the fuck it is that is pissing off people enough to suicide bomb your ass in the first place.

Not to mention the fact that the population is supposedly responsible for electing the people who are making these decisions in the first place.

Not to mention the fact that the population is supposedly responsible for electing the people who are making these decisions in the first place.

All voting that has any effect now happens with the wallet. All of it. The other voting is only for show. The average voter acting as a consumer votes for the product or service they prefer. This makes some providers wealthier and others less so. The successful providers lobby the politicians and make the campaign contributions, all requiring the money the consumer has provided. Big business is therefore the representative of the people and politicians are the public agents of these private businesses.

All voting that has any effect now happens with the wallet. All of it. The other voting is only for show. The average voter acting as a consumer votes for the product or service they prefer. This makes some providers wealthier and others less so. The successful providers lobby the politicians and make the campaign contributions, all requiring the money the consumer has provided. Big business is therefore the representative of the people and politicians are the public agents of these private businesses.

And, unfortunately, we cannot help but use the products and services offered by the businesses that will inevitably support politicians we do not.

Terrorism amuses me for several reasons. For one thing, it functions by seeking to uproot the deeply held assumptions people have about their relationship to their world and civilization. It's not just their physical security that is threatened in the sense that they may be killed in a terrorist attack, but their entire understanding of the world. Suddenly things become much more complex. "You mean there are people who don't like democracy? They don't want to be able to vote and be free?" Conversations arise in which people are forced to admit the fundamental 'equality' of Christianity and Islam on the grounds of religious faith, and thus their sense of purpose(self-righteousness?) is undermined.

Terrorism is effective in this way, and I'm interested in how it contributes to the doctrine of Equality by bringing foreign ideologies to the public consciousness in simplified forms, and forcing us to accept others in public while we fear/shun/mock them in private.